


Make You Better

by Vallinthe (Asallia)



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Attempt at Humor, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Girl Penis, Hospital Sex, Mutual Pining, Trans Female Character, nico only shows up for like five seconds but don't worry about it, that's an official tag huh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:55:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24149329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asallia/pseuds/Vallinthe
Summary: When nurse Maki Nishikino is assigned a frustratingly cute athlete for a patient, she finds her aloof demeanor giving way to a crush that rears its head when she accidentally walks in on an intimate moment.
Relationships: Hoshizora Rin/Nishikino Maki, Nishikino Maki & Toujou Nozomi, Toujou Nozomi/Yazawa Nico
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	Make You Better

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies if this setting is in questionable taste given the times - I certainly don't intend to disrespect how tough it is to be a medical worker right now, especially given that I know essentially nothing about the profession (trust me, it shows).
> 
> I had a shitty weekend, so I drafted this fic in a single day as a way to distract myself and have a bit of fun. I'm admittedly still in shock about it - my previous one-day record was a bit over 2k words once in 2018 - but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. If I don't release it now, when would I, you know? It hasn't quite gone through my usual quality control, but hopefully it's still enjoyable to some extent or another. RinMaki is my longtime μ's OTP, so I'm really happy that I finally got [some inspiration](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq76aQRmbQA) to write them.
> 
> (Also, sorry if anyone got double-notified about this one. Had some uploading troubles.)

Maki always made a point never to get close to her patients.

It wasn’t callousness, or at least not the kind that she’d worn like armor in her youth. Really, it was just a reality of her trade. She was a nurse, not a friend, and she did what she could to keep it that way. Besides, even if she’d _wanted_ to make small talk, she’d never exactly been a charmer. Conversation was for people who liked other people, and that wasn’t her. It was better to come in, do her job, then move on to the next task.

Of course, when the day came that she broke that promise to herself, she couldn’t have begun to predict just how it would come to pass.

There was a patient that had come in recently, admitted on account of some hiking accident for what would likely be a few weeks. Apparently she was some bigshot track star, not that Maki would have known. She just rolled her eyes as the other nurses _oohed_ and _ahhed_ at the cute tomboy in the ER, and balked when she was assigned the patient in question.

The head nurse even gathered up the audacity to _tease_ Maki about it. _The **nerve**._

“Maaaaaaaki,” Nozomi whined from across the hall one morning. Maki winced, instantly on her toes as soon as the sound of her boss’ annoyingly nosy voice reached her ears.

Okay, maybe that was just Maki’s temper talking. They were friends, after all, if only despite Maki’s best efforts.

“Whatever you want,” Maki began with a theatrically indignant huff for emphasis, “you can find someone else to do it.”

Of course, even her carefully-trained _don’t talk to me_ timbre couldn’t stop Nozomi from waltzing over like she owned the joint, sauntering up to the front desk where Maki had been working and hoisting herself up onto it.

“Oh, I know better than to ask you for something,” Nozomi replied with an wry lit to her words. “I just wanted to gossip with you, is all.”

“Uh huh.” Maki looked down from Nozomi and to the paperwork on her desk. “Gossip.”

“No dice? You’re really going to make me work for this,” Nozomi lamented. “Haven’t you gotten any new patients lately?”

“I tend to, yes.”

“Aaaaaand?~”

“And?”

Maki’s expression remained unyielding, and Nozomi pouted in defiance before allowing herself a sly grin.

“Any cute ones in the mix?”

Maki rolled her eyes, though the action primarily served to distract from the hint of rose on her cheeks. “Unlike you, I don’t go mixing work and pleasure.”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Nozomi replied, despite knowing exactly what Maki was talking about.

“I _mean_ that I know what you and Nico do in the supply closet. It’s disgusting. We can all hear. Please stop.”

“Take it up with Nico if you have a problem with it, then. I have _much_ more important things to be worried about. For example!” Nozomi suddenly exclaimed, pointing a finger squarely at Maki, who blanched. “You beat out every lesbian in a five mile radius to get the hot butch girl for a patient and you couldn’t even tell _me?_ For shame, Maki!”

Oh. _That._ Maki hadn’t been able to catch a break about that stupid assignment all day. “What, your cards didn’t tell you?” she deadpanned.

“Oh, of course not,” Nozomi replied as if it were the most obvious statement in the world. “They told me that you _should_ get her for a patient.”

Maki looked back up at Nozomi again, but this time her carefully-trained indifference had given way to an exasperated balk. “You set me up with her, didn’t you?”

“Now, would I do that?” Nozomi teased.

“Yes! You absolutely would!”

Nozomi hummed, a finger on her chin for good effect. “Well, I suppose that _does_ sound like something I’d do.” She paused, a drawn-out sigh escaping her slightly parted lips. “Oh Maki, you never could see the forest for the trees. I’m doing you a favor here!”

“And _what,_ ” Maki replied indignantly as she fiddled with her pen as angrily as she could manage, “might that be?”

“You’ll see,” Nozomi crooned as she hopped back off the desk. She dusted off her scrubs with her hands before turning back to Maki with that sly look on her face that had always driven Maki to fits. “A change of pace never killed anyone, no?”

Maki just grumbled in reply as Nozomi meandered off to do whatever a head nurse did. Like, say, meddle in other people’s business. And leave hickeys on Nico in the supply closet like some weird pervert.

Of course, no amount of grumbling about Nozomi could change the fact that Maki had a job to do, so she grabbed her things and made her way to her new patient’s room, pausing for only the briefest moment to scan her clipboard, searching for a name.

 _Rin._ Simple. To the point. Hell, maybe this one wouldn’t try and chat her up, Maki thought to herself. It was silly to try and glean something from nothing more than a name, but she allowed the corners of her lips to curl ever so slightly upwards all the same, only for them to be tugged back down when she realized that Nozomi would have likely approved of that kind of arcane logic.

Training her face to an impassive neutrality, Maki carefully opened the door and stepped inside, making sure to crack it slightly before turning around. Immediately, she was hit by a blinding blast of pitch orange that defined the mop of hair atop the patient’s head. She was already looking at Maki with a dopey smile, a hand raised in the air to wave at her.

“Maki! Hi!” she shouted, at which Maki was immediately taken aback.

“I’m- I’m sorry, how do you know my name? Do we know each other?”

Rin’s head crooked to the side. “What? No, it’s on your nametag.” She pointed to the lapel pin on Maki’s scrubs, and Maki inwardly castigated herself. She was letting Nozomi’s mind games get the best of her already. She was _better_ than this.

“Oh,” she responded with a faux-aloofness. “Of course.” She hoped that she didn’t seem as stupid as she felt, but she couldn’t glean a hint of just about anything from Rin’s expression, exactly as bubbly as it had been before. A short silence passed as Rin continued to stare at her, until Maki let out an awkward cough to puncture it. “I, uh… need to make sure your charts are filled out,” she muttered before walking over to the hospital bed.

“Oh, okay!” Rin replied, her voice enthusiastic enough that it somehow managed to make Maki feel like the hospital’s very own Scrooge.

“So…” Maki looked at her clipboard, then to Rin’s leg, resting in a cast - not the only part of her that looked worse for wear, but the most prominent all the same. “A hiking accident, I’ve been told?”

“Yeah,” Rin confirmed with a sheepish laugh. “I, uh, made a dare with my friend Honoka. There was a cat.”

“A cat? _In the woods?_ ”

“Cats live in the woods!” Rin objected. “But, uh… maybe we shouldn’t get into the details. It wasn’t my best look.”

Maki stared at Rin, her eyebrows raised as if to question why she would even want to know. “Uh huh. Alright, well, let’s move on to the _rest_ of your medical history.”

Thankfully, her patient was blissfully quiet the rest of the time, seemingly content to hum to herself as she answered more questions and allowed Maki to check her vitals. That alone was a blessing, but it didn’t endear her to Maki any more than anyone else.

Still, by the second and third visit, that boundary was beginning to become harder to keep. There was something so endearing about Rin, with the way she always seemed so happy and cheerful no matter how blithely Maki acted towards her. Maki tried to be pissed off about it, but she couldn’t help the way that a smile crept onto her face every time she left Rin’s room. She’d even realized that, loathe as she would be to ever admit it to a soul (yet alone Nozomi), she was starting to find Rin _attractive_. Even in the unflatteringly sterile light of the hospital, Rin just seemed to glow with positivity and fervent energy. Her smile could light up a whole city block, and her hair was always messed up _just so_ in a way that perfectly framed her almost boyish face.

And that was before Maki found a magazine tucked into her mailbox while clocking out one day, no indication of where it came from. When she saw her patient decked out in swimwear on its cover, she could only think to hastily shove it into her purse in case anyone saw her with it.

She tore it open as soon as she could rush home in a nervous fit, kicking off her shoes and sitting down at the foot of her bed. Inside she found spread after spread of the one and only Rin Hoshizora, the very same woman who’d spent the last week giving Maki that dopey smile she always wore. Sure, Maki had been able to admit to herself that Rin was kind of cute, but now she had to reconcile her image of Rin with that of an _athlete_ , yet alone a hot one. On just the first page alone, Rin was draped backwards across a track hurdle in a show of flexibility that bared her toned body, clad in little more than a skimpy two-piece and a pair of Nikes.

If the tissues Maki used to clean herself up half an hour later had anything to say about the matter, the spread had certainly done its job.

Of course, Maki suspected Nozomi of meddling yet again, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, yet alone fess up to finding it after that particularly shameful incident. She kept the magazine on her nightstand from then on out, doing her best not to think about it as she tended to Rin at day while sneaking furtive glances towards the curve of her breasts and defined tones of her abs at night, two knuckles deep in her pussy.

The dam finally broke two weeks later, in the early hours of the morning. Her clandestine infatuation with Rin was starting to become harder and harder to shake. To try and distract herself, she agreed to pick up an earlier shift than normal, in the hopes that it might give her brain a much-needed reset.

Her shift began when the hospital was blissfully quiet, leaving her to make her initial rounds in peace as the warm light of the sunrise seeped inside through the blinds on the windows. Most of her patients were still asleep, and the ones who were awake really only wanted breakfast. Rin was last up on her list, positioned in a slightly more remote room hidden away from prying eyes interested in catching a glimpse of a semi-famous athlete. That Rin had _fans_ was a thought that only made Maki’s blood boil, despite her better instincts. Some silly part of her resented anyone else holding _her_ patient in high regard, but it was just that - silly.

On the way, Maki made sure to splash some cold water on her face and give herself a few slaps for good measure.

Eventually she reached Rin’s room, and instinct took over. Now that it had been long enough, she was starting to feel something resembling comfortable around Rin. She didn’t need to spend time steeling herself before stepping inside, and as she made her way into the room her gait was as nonchalant as could be. She grabbed the clipboard and slipped inside the cracked door, ready to say good morning.

But as she turned to face Rin, all that vanished in a heartbeat at the sight of Rin with her gown pulled up, her entire lower body on display from her toned calves to her well-defined thighs, all the way to… to…….

“RIN!?”

As soon as the exclamation left Maki’s mouth, Rin froze like a deer in the headlights as she looked up at Maki, her hand wrapped around her erection, having been stroking it only a second prior. The two of them stayed completely still, staring at each other like kids who had just caught each other with their hands in the cookie jar, until Rin finally thought to let go of herself and nervously tug her gown back down.

“I, um…” Maki nervously muttered, her eyes darting downwards as if the tile on the floor were some work of art that merited close examination. “I need to check your IV,” she finally managed to sputter out. Her cheeks had turned the bright crimson of her hair, evidence of how thoroughly mortified she was.

Rin, wasn’t faring much better, either. She was still staring wide-eyed when Maki finally willed up the courage to make eye contact again, mouth open but no sound escaping it. Sensing no resistance, Maki walked to her bedside with every step feeling like she had lead for feet. She silently did her usual check-up, but as she attempted to act like nothing had happened, her brain was having none of it. Her eyes saw heart rate monitors and blood pressure levels and IV drips, but her mind couldn’t focus on any of it; not when the image of Rin masturbating had been seared onto her brain, every single detail perfectly vivid. It caused her to heat up even more, and even as she did her job she couldn’t help but sneak glances back to Rin, absently imagining the definition of her muscles underneath that stupid gown.

And then she made the mistake of opening her damn mouth.

“Why, um…” Maki’s voice trailed off, but as her eyes darted to Rin’s lower half, she let Rin fill in the gap lest she combust on the spot from pure unadulterated shame.

Rin began sputtering herself, hands instinctively reaching for her gown to try and tug it down farther - not that it could cover any more of her. “I, well, you know,” she said as she laughed nervously, “it’s just… um, been a while since I could… take care of things. Down there,” she added, though she visibly regretted doing so as soon as her lips opened back up.

“I see,” Maki sheepishly replied. They stood there awkwardly, both unsure of how to end this trainwreck of an interaction. Maki had finally finished and made her way halfway to the door, but she couldn’t quite complete the journey. Despite knowing that she should leave, it felt like her legs were holding her in place with a vice grip, succumbing to the hazy swirl of panic and lust that had taken over her brain. Really, shouldn’t she feel bad for Rin? The poor woman had been cooped up in a hospital room for weeks without the comfort of privacy with which to take care of her urges, all while Maki had been shamefully getting herself off to Rin’s barely-clothed figure in a _sports pinup magazine_ of all things. It was… selfish. That was what it was. She was being selfish, and now she had a chance to do something about it. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

“I, um, saw you on a magazine once,” she spoke, despite it being something of a white lie by ommission. “I didn’t realize you had one of... those.” She cringed internally at how she was stumbling over her words, but Rin didn’t seem to particularly mind.

“I keep it tucked,” Rin mumbled. Her hands fidgeted with each other, and Maki couldn’t help but stare as she thought about where they had been. “Nobody really knows that I’m trans.”

It was strange. All this time that they’d been around each other, Maki had kept them from having a real conversation. Rin had been so respectful of her boundaries, but now that Maki heard naked sincerity coming from those parted lips, she suddenly _wanted_ to hear Rin’s voice. Her feet finally moved, but now they willed themselves back to the bed, where she placed a delicate, manicured hand on Rin’s leg.

“Well, I like it about you,” Maki mumbled under her breath. “You’re… kind of tomboyish. It’s cute.”

“It is?” Rin looked up at Maki with a heartfelt glimmer to her eyes, and Maki’s heart skipped a beat.

“I know you’re still recovering,” Maki spoke in reply, words slow and deliberate, “but could you get onto your knees? You should be able to by now.” Her lips moved with a mind of their own, forming a thought that she could scarcely believe she was having.

Rin gawked. “Wh- why?”

“I’m going to take care of you,” Maki answered in an uncharacteristically warm tone. She willed her mouth up into a small smile, and the corners of her eyes softened.

Realization dawned on Rin’s face. “What about the door?” she asked, nervously glancing at the wedge of light that was escaping from the hallway. The door was mostly closed, but anyone who wanted to could easily poke their head in.

“It would be suspicious if I closed it,” Maki explained, “but we should be fine. Not many people will be passing by for the next hour or so. Just… we’ll need to keep quiet.”

Rin silently nodded, and that was all Maki needed to let a strangely powerful lust take control. Before Rin’s eyes, Maki grabbed the waist of her scrub pants and tugged them gently downward, letting gravity do the work as they crumpled at her feet to reveal her underwear. No matter how much she told herself that this wasn’t about putting on a show, she still found herself embarrassed by the unfortunately utilitarian nature of her white panties. Still, a visible damp spot dying the fabric a dark color was more than enough to distract from the fact that she hadn’t magically known to wear something sexier.

Rin was staring wide-eyed at Maki’s bared legs regardless as she began to get onto her knees, and Maki instantly saw Rin’s erection create a sizeable tent in her gown. While she had healed remarkably well up until now, the position still felt precarious with her IV dangling from her arm and her foot in a cast, so Maki took a moment to help make sure that everything was as comfortable as possible. Her breath hitched when she almost touched Rin down there, but she didn’t let the rush of desire prevent her from continuing to prepare.

Her panties swiftly followed her pants, and it was hard not to be anything other than desperately aroused by the way Rin was eating her up. Even the cracked door behind her felt like a kind of sick thrill, existing solely to illustrate how _wrong_ this was. Only Maki’s scrub shirt, still left on, gave her the illusion of having some moral high ground left to stand on.

“I didn’t think I should tell you this before, but you’re… so hot,” Rin finally spoke rather plainly, awe in her voice as her hand snaked under her gown to lift it up and begin stroking her cock. Her gaze roamed across Maki, stopping only at her pussy, trimmed hair already glistening with slick. Rin moved her hands to take hold of Maki, but Maki gently swatted them away.

“Ah ah,” she replied in a faux-chiding voice, though she cracked a hint of a playful smile that gave away the charade quickly. “You’re still recovering, I can’t have you moving. Just let me do everything, okay?”

“Are you sure?”

The way Rin spoke was achingly sincere, almost whispered. Maki wanted to move closer to Rin, but she had something she needed to do first. On the other side of the room was a corner table holding a bowl of condoms, a decoration kept in every room for some safe sex campaign the administration had been putting on. Maki deftly ripped open a wrapper and produced the condom, returning to Rin’s bedside to grab hold of her cock, stroking it slowly in Rin’s place. Rin whimpered and mewled, making no attempt to stop Maki as the condom was slowly rolled down her length. Finally Maki joined her, clambering onto the bed as she looked Rin directly in the eyes. No longer did she avert her gaze, not now that she had come this far.

“Of course I’m sure. Thank you for being so thoughtful, Rin.” Maki turned herself around so that she was facing the wall away from the bed, her back to Rin, and bent over with her hands kissing the bed’s foot. She jutted her bottom half outwards, presenting herself in a way that felt almost primal. She couldn’t see Rin’s reaction, but when her labia pressed up against Rin’s erection, she didn’t need visual confirmation any longer. They both let out tiny gasps of pleasure, and before Maki could think about the line she’d crossed, she rubbed herself up and down Rin’s cock, slow and steady movements that just served to rile them both up further.

“M- Maki…” Rin mewled, her voice strained. Her hands grabbed hold of each side of Maki’s waist, gently guiding her movements. Despite Maki’s command for her not to move, she couldn’t deny that the contact felt sensual, enough to further stoke her arousal.

“Does that feel good, Rin?” Maki whispered, craning her head backwards to see Rin’s face scrunched up in pleasure. It gave her a rush of satisfaction, being able to take care of Rin like this.

“Yeah,” Rin replied. “It feels really good. It’s just… hard not to move.”

“You’re doing a good job, Rin. I can’t have you hurting yourself, okay?” They were silent after that for a time, Maki content to grind herself against Rin’s erection as it throbbed against the lips of her pussy. The more contact they shared, the wetter she got, and soon Maki was ready for more. She paused and moved away slightly, eliciting a high-pitched whine from Rin, who attempted to gently tug her back into position. Maki was having none of it - she had something better in mind. “You can put it in now,” she whispered. “I’m ready for you. I _want_ you.”

“Maki…” Rin groaned as a hand obediently lined up her cock, and as soon as Maki felt its head throbbing against her entrance, she pushed backwards.

As her lips parted to take Rin, even that small amount of movement was like a jolt of electricity coursing through her body, and Maki already couldn’t get enough. Straining to rein in her lust, she kept to shallow, gentle movements, each just enough to draw out a breathy moan from Rin, sweet as candy. Maki lolled her hips back and forth, taking a little bit more of Rin each time, all the while keeping a careful eye on the door leading out to the hallway. Some small part of her brain held a grip of fear on her, telling her that she would lose her job if someone walked in and witnessed her grinding on her patient’s erection. It took most of her willpower just to keep from making noise, but no matter how much she wanted to call out Rin’s name, she kept quiet.

Yet, at the same time, the fear and the lust both goaded her on, encouraging her to do anything she could to make her patient feel better in defiance of common sense. Her emotions had taken control instead, and the caretaker in her said to continue. She wasn’t about to stop listening.

“More,” Rin whimpered suddenly, and Maki realized that she was still making rather shallow movements. Resolving herself, Maki began grinding back further, letting Rin sink further and further into her core, her cock sizeable enough that it took a bit of work until she had finally bottomed out inside Maki. A shudder swept Maki’s body, and she stayed there for a moment, savoring how full she felt with Rin inside her.

“Is… is it bad if I say that you have a really nice butt?” Rin spoke, a sheepish laugh punctuating the confession. The childishness of the word was anathema to the mood, but Maki found herself happy to have a reason to relax a bit and giggle despite herself, and she didn’t object to the way Rin’s hands began tenderly caressing her rear.

“No, I like hearing that,” she replied with a smile that Rin couldn’t see. “I’m happy that you think I’m hot.” The words tasted strange on her tongue, but she liked them all the same.

Truth be told, she _did_ like her ass. She’d put effort into toning it, and she knew the tan lines from her bikini gave it a striking definition. For all of Maki’s repression, knowing that Rin was getting off on the sight was a strange pleasure.

“I was thinking of you when I was masturbating,” Rin blurt out in reply. “Just now, I mean,” she added sheepishly.

“Wait, really?” The confession came as a surprise to Maki, though she couldn’t quite see why given what they were doing. “I made you feel like that, huh?”

“Well,” Rin interjected with a small laugh, “my fantasy really couldn’t compare to _this_.”

Maki laughed as well, with the sound taking on an almost sultry quality to it as she gently began to grind against the base of Rin’s cock. “I’m so glad,” she cooed softly. “I don’t know what I’d have done if you’d been thinking of anyone else.”

Newly invigorated with something resembling possessiveness over her patient, Maki slowly settled into a steady rhythm. Rin’s hands moved with Maki’s hips, as Maki rocked them back and forth. Eventually, she was able to adjust her position ever so slightly so that her clit came into contact with the base of Rin’s shaft every time they bottomed out, and the blissful feeling was enough to encourage Maki even further.

Her movements became a bit faster, a bit less restrained, a little more wild. Her scrubs rode up her midriff, until her bra was exposed. A few minutes ago that might have been too much for her poor, paranoid brain to handle, but now she couldn’t even bring herself to think twice about it, not when Rin felt so _perfect_ inside of her.

By now, she could feel Rin twitching and pulsing as she sped up her grinding, edging them closer and closer to a high that Maki now wanted to reach just as badly as she wanted Rin to. She felt her ass shake with every _smack_ against Rin’s toned thighs, the sound serving as the only evidence of what they were doing in secret. Rin, more worked up than ever, responded to Maki’s enthusiasm by guiding her movements with more force, showing her lust through her only available outlet as she brought Maki down onto her erection over and over again.

“Maki, _fuck, Maki,_ I’m so close,” Rin whispered fervently as Maki became increasingly erratic and wild, an orgasm creeping up on the horizon. In response, as if to not be left behind, Maki braced herself with an arm and used the free one to begin rubbing at her hardened clit. She wanted to come with Rin desperately, and once she was close she whispered in reply.

“It’s okay, Rin, you can finish.”

And those words were all she needed to say. Rin eagerly guided Maki back one last time onto her cock, and held her there as she tensed for a brief moment, then came in a sudden fit, unloading her seed into the condom.

Maki wasted no time in joining her, the warmth and twitching of Rin’s cock as well as the stimulation to her clit bringing her to an orgasm that swept her entire body, leaving her spasming in delight and drooling on the bedsheet as she felt Rin finish inside her. There was something so strangely intimate about the feeling of orgasming together with this near-stranger, so _tender,_ that left Maki floating, suspended in a hazy bliss. She felt happy in a way she never felt around others, and she couldn’t even bring herself to be bothered by the fact that it had taken an orgasm to come to that conclusion.

Eventually, though, all good things came to their natural end. Maki pulled herself off of Rin, stumbling a bit as she stood up before ultimately deciding to sit down on the side of the bed. Meanwhile, Rin carefully lowered herself back onto her back.

The two of them sat on that bed for a few minutes, just panting and resting, until they finally looked at each other and shared a nervous laugh, the kind borne of a shared secret that was both shameful and wonderful.

“Did that feel good?” Maki asked tenderly, her hand reaching for Rin’s to gently hold it.

Rin hummed in confirmation, and squeezed Maki ever so slightly. “It really, _really_ did. Thank you, Maki.”

They returned to silence, until after a few moments Maki gave Rin a wry smile. “Since you confessed something, can I do the same?”

“What is it?”

“Well, is it bad if I tell you that you’re a lot more thoughtful than I initially thought you’d be?”

Rin looked back at her, mirroring Maki’s expression. “You mean less stupid?”

Maki feigned offense, though not convincingly. “I would never imply such a thing!”

That was enough to cause Rin to crack up, and she had to put a free hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing out loud.

“I mean, if I was smart I wouldn’t be in here, you know?” Rin flicked her cast to illustrate the point. Sometime when Maki hadn’t been in, she must have had several people to sign it. Maki even recognized ‘Honoka’ scribbled in large hiragana, the woman Rin said she’d been with when she had her accident.

“But then I wouldn’t have gotten to know you,” Maki replied matter-of-factly. “So... maybe I’m glad that you’re kind of dumb.” She punctuated the thought with a giggle, but it faded when she realized that Rin was staring at her with an unreadable expression all of a sudden.

“Is everything okay?”

“Um, Maki? Can I... kiss you?”

Maki’s heart skipped a beat as Rin blurted the words out, so sudden and yet not out of place. What they had done wasn’t supposed to be romantic, yet… she couldn’t deny that her lust was borne of something else besides that magazine. Maki thought about the implications, turning them around in her mind and weighing them.

“I’d really like that, Rin,” she finally replied. It didn’t take long until they were pressed together: a short scoot up the bed, a hand delicately cradling Rin’s face, a sense of longing and desire entirely different from what they’d shared moments prior. When Maki leaned down and captured Rin’s lips with her own, it felt natural. No one caught off guard, no one watching the door. They pressed their lips together and held each other close, just beginning to learn each other’s bodies.

Rin’s hair was soft, and it seemed to fall right back to where it had been no matter how much Maki touched it. Her hands liked to fidget, even when she was kissing. Her lips were thin, but her shoulders had breadth. She smelled like the linen of the bedsheets and tasted like stale coffee and hospital food, but those things felt like home to Maki.

When they finally parted from one another, it wasn’t by Maki’s choice, nor Rin’s. Maki moved away, even as Rin tried to pull her close again, prompting Maki to place a finger on Rin’s lips to silence the whine that escaped them.

The kiss had felt _right,_ but it couldn’t change the fact that Maki needed to somehow find a way to sneak a shower into the middle of her shift now, preferably before anyone else thought to poke their heads into Rin’s room.

“We should probably not tell anyone about this,” Maki said to Rin. “But, if you ever need any more… um, _help_ , let me know.”

Rin nodded eagerly, her eyes wide-eyed. “Yeah,” she replied. “Of course. You really helped.”

“And when you get better,” Maki continued with a faintly sly smile, “maybe we can see where this goes?”

That was enough to get Rin to combust, and Maki giggled. With a sputtering lover in her wake, she put back on her scrub pants, primped her hair a bit, and waved to Rin as she moved to the door.

“I’ll be looking forward to your next check up.”

~=O=~

In a closet tucked away on the upper floors of the hospital, Nozomi suddenly came to a standstill, her fingers buried inside Nico.

“Hey, what the hell are you stopping for?”

Nozomi paused, as if sniffing the air around her, and giggled to herself.

“I’m getting the feeling that something good happened to Maki,” she replied with a sage smile. Nico only grumbled.

“And?”

“The cards were right!” Nozomi exclaimed. “They never let me down, Nicocchi, and they told me Maki’s fate was in that patient of hers.”

“Cool. Are the cards going to tell you to shut up and make me come before my shift starts?”

“Oh, I don’t need them to tell me that,” Nozomi replied with a wink. “But Maki needs the extra prodding now and then.”

Nico rolled her eyes. “Christ, you can say that again.”

“You’re one to talk, dear.”

“What does _that_ mean?” Nico scrunched her eyebrows indignantly.

“It means that you’re not getting out of here without returning the favor, Nicocchi. You better get ready to work that tongue of yours once I’m done,” Nozomi explained with a wide, cheshire-like grin.

Nico sighed as she shifted back into her previous position, grinding against Nozomi’s fingers with a bitten-back moan. “God, you’re insatiable. Get me off and then we’ll talk.”

**Author's Note:**

> Credit where credit's due to the eternally lovely [Mudkippington](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_Byron_Mudkippington) for a) showing me something that planted the initial seed for this concept in my head, b) writing enough of this particular Nozomi&Maki dynamic that I just gave up and put it in my own fic for good measure, and c) giving me the idea for Rin being a sports magazine model - I'm not above shamelessly ripping off good ideas!


End file.
